Episode Transcript
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(01:47):
You work really hard, don'tyou? You're managing your money well,
you're taking those steps,you're making smart financial choices.
But sometimes when you look atit, even with all that growth, let
me ask you, does it feel alittle disconnected from your true
purpose? Like, what ifinvesting could actually do more
than just grow your balance?What if it could really serve your
(02:09):
calling, you know, your Godgiven mission? On today's show, we're
going to get into how yourmoney can truly work for your mission
and not just the market. Thisis Financially Confident Christian,
your daily dose of gospel,grounded insight and faith driven
tips to help you break thecycle of financial shame with confidence.
(02:30):
Hello there. Welcome back toFinancially Confident Christian.
I'm Ralph and it is truly anhonor to be with you again today.
As you know, this show is allabout answering that big question,
how can I become a financiallyconfident Christian? And we're continuing
in our series beyond theBudget, Finding Financial Freedom
through Intentional Living.Every episode in this series is all
(02:51):
about being intentional. Nowyesterday we talked about stewarding
money. We talked aboutstewarding your time and stewarding
your talents. Well, today I'mgoing to get a little more controversial.
We're going to be talkingabout aligning your investments with
your God given calling. Andlet me just tell you right now, I've
done shows about this in thepast and sometimes I get some hate
mail. But I really want to getinto aligning your investments with
(03:14):
God's calling because I wantto start with a basic preposition.
I'm assuming you're investing,you're planning for retirement, you're
watching your savings grow,you've set aside that emergency fund,
you're starting to see thingsreally start to click. But then you
start thinking, wait a minute,is this just about me? Is it just
(03:36):
about me? What is this allabout? Yeah, maybe you're giving
the church, you're supportingministries, but your investments,
they just feel disconnectedfrom your faith. And see, when there's
this disconnection, it createsthis inner tension. And listen, your
finances could be doing great.You might be setting the market on
fire with your investments.Your retirement is growing greatly.
(04:00):
But there's this innertension. And you might be saying,
why, Ralph? Why is there thisinner tension? Because I feel it
too. I'm listening to youright now, Ralph. And I feel it because
here's the truth. You weremade for more than just growing wealth.
And I want you to hear thattoday. Today's show was all about
that. Because you were madefor more than just growing wealth.
(04:23):
You were made to invest ineternity. See, here's the thing I
want you to understand Today,dollars are tools, and every dollar
is a tool. It's not just forgrowth. It's not just all about you.
But if you're really going tolive in God's will for your life.
One of the things I pray aboutevery day is, lord, just help me
(04:45):
to live in your will today.But if you're really going to live
in God's will, you've got tostart using your money as a tool,
not just for growth, but forGod's glory. I want to share with
you today the parable of thetowns. A lot of people are firmly
aware of this, but I thoughtthis was so appropriate for today.
If you open up your bibles,it's in Matthew, chapter 25, verses
(05:06):
14 to 30. And it says this.And I'm going to tie in why this
makes sense to me and why Ithink all this connects today. And
here's what it says again. Itwill be like a man going on a journey.
He called his servants andentrusted his wealth to them. To
one, he gave five bags ofgold. To another, he gave two bags,
and to another one bag, eachaccording to his ability. Now, that's
(05:28):
going to be important here ina moment. But each according to his
ability. Then he went on hisjourney. The man who had received
five bags of gold went at onceand put his money to work and gained
five bags more. So also theone with two bags of gold gained
two more. But the man whoreceived one bag, he went off, dug
a hole in the ground, and hidhis master's money well. After a
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long time, the master of thoseservants returned and settled accounts
with them. The man who hadreceived five bags brought the other
five. Master, he said, listen,you entrusted me with five bags of
gold. See, I've gained fivemore. And his master replied, well
done, good and faithfulservant. You've been faithful with
a few things. I will put youin charge of many things. Come and
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share your master's happiness.Then the man who had received one
bag came. Master, he said, Iknow you're a hard man. So I was
afraid and I went out and hidyour gold in the ground. See, here
is what belongs to you. Hismaster replied, you wicked, lazy
servant. Well, let me just askyou a very appointed question. You
(06:33):
know, I skipped around alittle bit in that because I just
wanted to get to the point ofthat. The person that had five invested
five. The person who had two,two invested two. But the one who
just had one, he Buried it ina hole. And what did this? What.
What did the master say, youwicked, lazy servant? Well, ask yourself,
what's the separation betweenthe wise and the fearful? The wise
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invested that that was. Theyinvested what they were entrusted.
And a lot of people miss thispoint. And I think this is so appropriate
for today's discussion. Itwasn't just about the personal gain.
It was to honor the Master.See, a lot of people read the parable
of the towns and say, oh, God,saying to be fruitful and do with
(07:19):
my work. But read it morecarefully. It was all about honoring
the Master. And see, I thinkwe can learn from that today. The
key is, don't just grow money,grow your mission. Let investments
fuel Kingdom Impact. Maybeyou're thinking right now, Ralph,
(07:39):
man, you. You nailed it. Youare right on point today. But how
can I make that happen, Ralph?Well, the simple answer is this.
Align your investments withyour calling. Let money serve a purpose,
not just produce profit. Now,I'm going to say something really
bold, but I mean this with allof my heart. If you are a Christian,
(08:01):
if you profess the Christianfaith, then you should be investing
in things that are appropriatefor Christians. What I mean by that
is don't invest in companiesthat put sin on the front page of
their investment prospectus. Alot of people don't like to hear
that. Oh, Ralph, but thisone's doing so great in the market.
This one's doing so greathere. I don't care. Look at your
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purpose. Well, let me get alittle bit more linear and what I
think you can do to really getus past this point of really understanding
where your investment shouldgo. The first thing I need you to
do is to create a practicalplan. You got to start by defining
your calling or your purpose.Take a moment today, maybe after
you get done listening to thisshow, and ask yourself, and this
(08:47):
is where you can really getcreative. Ask yourself this really
tough question. What missionreally fires me up? Ask yourself,
what am I called to build?What am I called to serve? What am
I called to support? Or whatam I called to create? And then ask
yourself, how could my moneyactually help advance that mission?
(09:09):
What are your passions? Whatfires you up? What are you being
called to build, serve,support, or create? And how could
you put your money to work to.To actually advance that mission?
And for today, I want you tojust write that down and get clear
on it. Be specific about it.And once you do that, I want to encourage
you to research one value lineinvestment. Listen, I'm not telling
(09:31):
you to go overhaul everythingyou have. That would be insanity
to try to do it once. I thinkyou should consider doing that over
time. When somebody comes tomeet with me, they say Ralph, I know
you're a Christian guy, I knowyou, you think good on Christian
investments. And I said yeah,here's a deal. I could teach you
how to be a very wealthyscoundrel. I've got 30 years of experience
(09:51):
showing people how to maketheir money work for them. But does
it reach to your purpose? Sofirst of all, define what that purpose
is for you find that mission.So second thing, research one value
line investment that ties intoyour values. And just one, maybe
you want to consider somefaith based mutual funds or exchange
(10:12):
traded funds that really alignwith your Christian values. Well,
what does that mean? You'regoing to have to look under the hood.
You're going to have to go seewhat these companies are really investing
in. A lot of people just sayoh my, my broker selected this Ralph.
It's a great investment andyeah, it's giving you great returns.
But what does that businesssupport? Maybe you want to look at
(10:32):
some socially responsibleinvesting, some ethical funds or
hey, here's a great one. I'mall about small business people.
See how you can invest inlocal Christian owned businesses
or maybe just work with somecharitable donor advised funds. But
get yourself an education,start to look at what tools are out
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there to help you define thatspecific mission. And then test these
companies and see are theymeeting that mission. So what is
your passion? Number two,research how you can do that. And
then I'm just going toencourage you to take one small step.
Now listen, I'm not tellingyou to go sell all your investments
and put them all into oneparticular thing. I'm not saying
that at all. I'm saying justtake one small step. Don't overthink
(11:15):
it. You know, maybe this couldbe something like opening a new investment
account for mission alignedgiving. Maybe you really want to
work on that. Or maybeallocating a small portion of our
portfolio to kingdom drivenfunds or enrolling in a course to
sharpen your God givenmission. Or one of my personal favorites,
supporting a ministry youbelieve in with strategic investment.
(11:36):
Not just these little handoffgifts. I mean really pour your heart
and your money into it. Now westarted off talking about that disconnect.
We start talking about thattension with inside of you and I
really think this helps youbecause it's going to bridge that
gap between faith andfinances. One of the key things that
I hear from people, it's Oneof the reasons I started the show
(11:57):
was Ralph. I feel like I'mdisconnected. My faith and my finances
are on completely differentpages. Well, that's a problem because
they should be on the samepage. And see, by doing this step
today, you're going to turninvesting into worship and you're
going to bring joy and purposeto your planning. And let me just
tell you right now, it reallyhelps you steward well what God has
(12:20):
given you to create thateternal impact. Remember, it's not
just about you. It's not justabout your wallet. It's about that
eternal impact and growth forthe kingdom. Well, let's take a moment
and pray together. Okay?Heavenly Father, I just thank you
for the incredible callingsyou've placed on each of our lives
and for all the resourcesyou've generally entrusted with us.
(12:42):
Forgive us, Lord, forsometimes viewing money through such
a selfish or limited lens. Wejust ask that you would show us how
to invest wisely, Lord, inways that truly build your kingdom.
Not just our own portfolios,Lord, not just our own wallets. Help
us to be faithful stewards,Lord, multiplying what you've been
given to us for your glory.Give us courage to take action, Lord,
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even if it's just one smallstep today. And we ask this in confidence
in Jesus name, Amen. Friend.Investing with purpose genuinely
changes everything. I want youto trust me on that. If you have
a purpose, a God given missionpurpose, it will change everything.
It'll transform your moneyinto ministry and turns that growth.
(13:28):
And I want you to see thatgrowth. But I want you to see that
growth turn into impact. So Ijust challenge you today, friend.
Don't just chase the return.Chase that alignment with your values.
Take just one small step toalign your money with your mission.
One of the things I'm going toencourage you to do is share the
show today. Share my show ingeneral, share this episode and say,
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hey, Ralph was talking aboutaligning my faith in my investments.
You know, it's something thatyou might want to think about because
I've been thinking about ittoo. I'm also going to encourage
you to grab a free copy of mybook. It'll only be a couple more
days and it's going to beavailable. It's called Mastering
Your Finances. It's a freebook. It's about 47 pages, but it
is super impactful for helpingyou put all those money mastery tips
(14:11):
together. You can get that bygoing to financially confidentchristian.com
master now tomorrow we'regoing to be talking about a powerful
reflection on redefiningwealth. I'm going to surprise a little
bit tomorrow, so I hope youcan tune in. We're going to talk
about how relationships andcommunity, yes, those things actually
bring the deepest financialpeace. So don't miss it. One of the
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other things I want to mentiontoday is I just launched a new show.
It's a weekly show. It'scalled Truth Unveiled with Ralph.
And I'm going to go a littledeeper each week and talk about not
just money, but things thatreally impact you on your faith walk.
I'll put a link to it in theshow notes, but you can find it at
truth unveiled with Ralph.comwe just released the first episode.
We'll be releasing one everySunday, so I'm going to encourage
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you to check it out. Well,let's all go out today and be financially
confident Christians. Let'svewisely,let'sgive faithfully,andlet'salwaysthinkaboutinvestingforeternity.You
canabsolutely dothis.I'vegotso muchconfidenceinyouandI wantyoutohave
confidenceinyourself. Stayfinanciallysavvy.Godblessyou andyouhavea
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greatday.It.